Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Claudio Descalzi (photo), Eni’s Chief Executive Officer, are in talks over combined obligation to speed up the commencement of production on the Zohr field offshore Egypt, Offshore Energy Today reports.

Descalzi had in September stated that it was going to require about $10 billion to bring the gas field to production.

It was predicted that the discovery could hold approximately 30 tcf of lean gas (5.5 billion boe in place) covering an area of about 100 km². Eni afterward declared that the Zohr discovery is larger than what was predicted.

However, exploration is scheduled to resume in 2016.

Meanwhile both parties also discussed the option of creating a gas hub in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The aim is to make Egypt’s transport and export facilities available for nearby discoveries.